


A Gift of Light

by Gem_Alawas



Series: Pokemon Short Fics [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas fic, Comfort No Hurt, Gen, Ice Skating, Kyurem Gets A Hug, Kyurem needs a hug, Lacunosa Town, Mythology References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 16:08:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19232500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gem_Alawas/pseuds/Gem_Alawas
Summary: On Christmas Eve Night, Kyurem is alone as always. Then Hilda and Hilbert come along.





	A Gift of Light

After dark, as always, Lacunosa Town was a silent place. There wasn’t a single person to be seen on the near-pitch streets, not even the native Pokémon dared to so much as poke their noses from their hidey-holes. The huge wall surrounding the town blocked the light from the routes and its neighbors, casting ominous shadows even against the darkness. Compared to the rest of the region, the Christmas night was very subdued. No carolers laughed and danced down the wide streets, no decorations adorned the blocky buildings, no lights shone on the ice and snow that covered everything. The only proof that it was a holiday-or even that people and Pokémon remained within the town-were the faint sounds coming from inside the houses and what little light leaked through locked doors and tightly-drawn window curtains. The atmosphere was one of fear rather than Christmastime cheer, as though the entire town was holding its breath lest it be heard.

The reason for this fearful atmosphere stood silently planted just by a hidden window in one of the spartan homes, tall enough to reach the roof if it stretched upwards, at ease on the slippery ice and unbothered by the frigid conditions. The Pokémon was huge, more than nine feet tall, height augmented by ice-covered appendages on its back that couldn’t quite be called wings. It was ice-gray and blue, vaguely draconic in its shape, with pupil-less yellow eyes that glowed slightly in the shadows. It was longer, even, than it was tall; supporting its massive bulk on relatively small legs, long neck arched, and mostly frozen head tilted to listen closely to the hushed goings-on in the house. It made no sound except the slow rasp of its breaths, each accompanied by a puff of frost leaking out from the cracks in the ice covering its frozen maw.

Within the squat little house, an old woman was having an argument that she’d had seemingly a thousand times. Her young grandchild wanted to go visit a friend despite the fact that it was night, and she had to tell him no. As always, the child wouldn’t relent until the old woman once more told him the story of why it was that no-one was allowed out past dark. And, as it often did in its loneliness, the icy dragon inclined its head nearer to the curtained window, blinking its blank yellow eyes against the light shining through a crack in the dark drapes, and listened closely.

_“See, you can’t go out, not even for a little bit.”_  
_“But why Nanna?”_  
_“I’ve told you why more times than I can count.”_  
_“Please tell me again?”_  
_“No.”_  
_“Please? I’ll go out if you don’t tell me!”_  
As it always did, this ‘threat’ caused the old woman to sigh and reconsider.

_“Long ago, a meteor crashed down not far from this town. Within the meteor was a Pokémon-a terrible monster of a Pokémon, fueled by rage, spewing ice that covered the entire town. It came at night with the frost and cold winds, seizing people and Pokémon alike. It took these unlucky souls back to its frozen home in Giant Chasm, where it ate them at its leisure. People and Pokémon worked together to build the huge wall that surrounds town, but it got in even then-and so people were forbidden to leave even their homes at night, most especially in winter. People say the monster still comes here on snowy nights, hoping to find someone foolish enough to stray from safety. If you go out, the monster might well be waiting to catch you and eat you up.”_

The ice dragon huffed with some kind of amusement, briefly distracting it with the effort of quieting itself. The voice of the child promptly jolted the dragon back to reality.

_“Nanna? What was the monster’s name again?”_  
_“The monster was and is called Kyurem, the empty husk left behind when the Original Dragon split into pieces.”_

The family quieted for a moment, before a parent’s brisk tone broke the cold spell seemingly cast over the little house by the old woman’s words. They bustled about, seemingly having forgotten the conversation already-and certainly unaware of their extra audience member. Kyurem huffed again, quieter this time, and moved away from the window with slow, lumbering steps, walking slowly through the dark, silent place and feeling utterly alone-as it always did, for it always was.

Then, Kyurem heard something that wouldn’t be unusual at that time anywhere else in Unova-but in the night of Lacunosa, was unheard of. Laughter. Two people, teens at the oldest, bundled up against the cold, were racing down a street, laughing in the carefree manner that only those who’d never learned to fear Kyurem could under the circumstances. Ten Pokémon followed them in a happy, disorganized rush. A Volcarona, an Excadrill, a Jellient, a Samurott, a Chandelure, a Sawsbuck, a Braviary, a Cofagrigus, a Hydreigon, and a Swoobat. Faces flushed with cold and joy; hair, fur, and feathers alike wild messes; slipping and sliding across the ice, these kids and their Pokémon were happy, the only bright spots in the whole town.

Yet Kyurem knew that these children were not the ordinary ones that they would seem to be to a human observer. The girl was electric in her nature, every movement effacing the speed and power of electricity, bright eyes almost literally sparking with untapped power-the power of Zekrom was in her hands. Likewise, the boy was practically a living curlicue of Reshiram’s fire to Kyurem’s ancient eyes. These children were the heroes of truth and ideals. The heroes of Kyurem’s siblings, the other pieces left behind when the Original Dragon fell apart. Light and warmth seemed to radiate from the two, spreading to their Pokémon in all its brightness, reflected back as through mirrors. Kyurem slowly, almost without noticing itself, moved closer. It had been more years than the dragon could count since it had felt the auras of its missing pieces. Old memories, tinted warmly with the glow of nostalgia, tumbled through its mind.  
The Braviary was the first to notice the hulking dragon, and it squawked a surprise, gaining several feet in altitude. The girl skidded to a distinctly undignified stop, looking at her Pokémon.

_“What’s wrong Braviary?”_ She asked.

The Pokémon made a honking noise, staring at Kyurem, and the girl turned, starting in surprise at the ice dragon that seemed to just suddenly be in her field of view. The boy stopped as well and looked over as their Pokémon stood protectively around them, practically glowing with readiness to battle on the duo’s behalf. These were powerful, well-trained Pokémon, but Kyurem paid them little mind. Its attention focused upon the two full Pokéballs still hanging at the children’s belts. It knew what had to lie within. It knew that these two children held a power over it that only a few ever did-the ability to perhaps make it something a little closer to whole once more. Kyurem moved closer again, looming over the two and cast in the eerie purple glow of Chandelure’s flames, but neither so much as flinched. They only looked back with the confidence of the twin heroes of Zekrom and Reshiram-such heroes, such nobles, such leaders feared little and showed fear to even less. Kyurem, even had they known what it was, garnered no such reaction. The boy hero of Reshiram, instead, stepped closer, speaking without looking away from the icy creature he was faced with.

_“I’ve never seen a Pokémon like this before. Hilda, do you know what kind of Pokémon this is?”_  
The girl Hilda shook her head, stepping forth to match her companion.  
_“I haven’t heard of it either Hilbert,”_ she added, _“Let’s try the Pokédex, that’ll probably tell us.”_

Without waiting for a reply, Hilda pulled a little device from her bag and held it up towards Kyurem. The dragon leaned closer, peering at the thing. It beeped, and an electronic voice rang out.

_“This Pokémon is known as Kyurem, the Boundary Pokémon,”_ it stated, _“Pokédex Number 646. Entry reads: This legendary ice Pokémon waits for a hero to fill in the missing parts of its body with truth or ideals.”_  
The young boy Hilbert whistled. _“A Legendary Pokémon? Wow.”_

Kyurem could almost sense its twins looking back at it from within their little spheres-or indeed from behind the eyes of the two heroes. It grunted faintly, one of the few noises it could make through the mask of ice that had encrusted its face. Hilda put away the little device, and Hilbert stretched his mittened hand out to the great dragon, a curious expression on his face. He gently patted Kyurem’s head, a small smile now upon his face as the icy being accepted the affection. The dragon cast its memory back, searching for the last time it had been petted, or indeed treated with kindness since the rage that had driven it to kill and devour those unlucky enough to stand too close. It found nothing. Even as it fruitlessly searched its mind, Kyurem felt power-light-from the boy’s heart, his connection to Reshiram, transfer to itself. A warmth, the likes of which the dragon had not known for hundreds of years. The icy aura that always surrounded the dragon, never able to feed off of anything but itself, receded when faced with it, as the fire in a fireplace beats back the winter’s chill. A low croon, a sound which the dragon had never had a reason to make since it was split from the Original Dragon, shakily emerged from its throat. Hilda giggled slightly, the Pokémon standing around her relaxing as Kyurem made clear that it meant no harm.

She, too, stepped up and patted the dragon’s head, sending the blazing aura of electricity that she carried through it. Kyurem rumbled pleasantly, even as both children stepped back to allow it space when it shifted. Two near-simultaneous flashes of light nearly blinded the dragon and children alike in the dim street, even lit as it was by the sheer auras of the children themselves, yet when it faded two even brighter lights in Kyurem’s eyes remained. Reshiram’s moon-pale feathers almost shone in the darkness to all watching, but to Kyurem it was like looking upon a searing inferno. Zekrom, likewise, was a corona to its fellow dragon. Over the years, neither had lost a speck of their light and glory, nor a whit of the devotion to their causes. Truth, ideals, and lack were at last reunited, even if they were much less than they had once been.

For Kyurem, seconds blurred into minutes, which blurred into hours. Spent once more in the company of those it had once been one with, their heroes who embodied the best of them, and the Pokémon that stood so strong and loyal by their Trainers, time meant little. The darkness that shrouded the streets was broken by gouts of glowing red-yellow-orange-purple-blue flames and radiant sparks of electricity as the group of Pokémon and people freely enjoyed the cold Christmas night. In company, the night no longer seemed so forlorn nor even cold to the ancient dragon. Even the solemn silence of the town abated at the tap of feet on ice, the laughter of the two heroes and the cries of their Pokémon.

Everywhere Kyurem looked, eyes peered from slightly less-hidden windows, throwing light and shadows across the icy lanes. Kyurem knew that what the town believed of it had just been turned on its head as the boy-so young, yet so strong in his commitment to truth and all it meant-leaned playfully against the dragon’s lowered head. They could not claim that the dragon was rejected by its siblings as they affectionately bumped the one who’d once been a part of them as much as they were a part of it. As time passed, barely noticed by Kyurem in the rushes of joy that it felt, Kyurem was restored. Not, perhaps, to what it once was, but once again fire and electricity flowed through it, from dragon to dragon and back again. At last, the group wound down as the sky began to lighten in the east, all laughing, all happy, all with no regrets of how they’d spent their Christmas night. Kyurem remembered, for the first time in…a long time, how camaraderie felt. For perhaps even the first time in its long life, even before the split, what it was to feel no burden and just find something wonderful in the company of one who could be called a friend.

The smiles of both Reshiram and Zekrom told Kyurem all it needed to know. They, too, had found happiness alongside their Trainers, and at last resolved the feud that had split them apart. Even damaged, broken as all three dragons were ever since the split, Kyurem felt at peace. Reshiram and Zekrom were happy, and it felt at last vindicated in the joy it felt. Even if it was fleeting, even though Kyurem knew it would fade, while watching the two exhausted heroes recall their Pokémon and saunter off to the Pokémon Center, Kyurem was truly happy. The twin heroes would likely never understand the gift they had bestowed upon Kyurem. How, at last, they had brought light and warmth to the despairing dragon. How they had given it its first Christmas gift in its life. How it felt like perhaps it could be happy after all in this frozen form. How it simultaneously felt like maybe, just maybe, it had a chance of becoming one again with the better parts of itself. These hopes seemed fragile, even foolish, until a voice called back over the ice. Just a sentence, but one that Kyurem would not forget.

_“See you soon!”_


End file.
